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Daughter's Memories

Chapter 2 LAHORE – THE CITY OF MY BIRTH

I was born
in Lahore inside the walled part of the city. The city lived within
these walls during the British Raj. In Mughal times before the
British Raj, access to the city was through its thirteen gates which
were constantly guarded against strangers and spies. Security
necessitated that The Gates were closed during the night and opened
only after ascertaining that the people who wanted to come in were
not the enemy or enemy agents. And, when the enemy from outside
raided or attacked, most people retreated within the four walls to
wait and see how things would shape up. If things became worse, women
and children sought shelter in the Lahore Fort which was considered
to be a safe haven and invincible.

In times of crisis and invasions, the
city moved back into a shell. Every home had a store room with
wheat, sugar and 'ghee' ( Clarified butter milk ) to last several
days. Every Mohalla had a well for water and some homes had their
private wells too. Mohallas or street gates were barred and people
guarded them twenty four hours a day to stop strangers. People kept
pots of boiling oil or water to pour on the intruders – if they
ventured to cross the city walls. They resorted to similar practices
during communal riots in the era of the British Raj to protect them
from attackers from the 'enemy' community.

The people living in the countryside
were generally not affected unless they fell directly in the way of
the invaders. If a Fort was taken, then the area surrounding the
Fort automatically came into the hands of the new rulers. They looted
the produce of the farmers and extracted taxes. History is witness to
these developments. The Arabs, the Pathans, the Lodhis, the Mughals
and the Persians all came and conquered parts of India. Some did go
back. More stayed on, settled, married and had their own children
and became part and parcel of the Indian caste system. Islam did
not believe in caste system but those who converted to Islam seldom
forgot their castes or sub castes and retained their place in society
even though there was more flexibility in moving up the economic
ladder among them.

Unplanned, narrow streets, lanes and
by-lanes were the hall-mark of the city. There were not many open
spaces except the market areas. The city houses were small but with
several floors. Not much natural light came into city homes due to
the height of the buildings. Most of the ground area was covered.
Houses appeared to have been constructed with no sanctioned plans and
very much at the whims of the masons and carpenters and perhaps the
people who were supposed to live there. White-washing, painting or
repairs of the houses were exceptions rather than the norm. Some of
the houses were made of tiny red bricks taken from crumbling
centuries’ old structures.

There was minimal space left for
pedestrian movements between the houses. Streets were no wider than
two yards. Neighbours could easily peep into or even jump into the
adjoining houses with ease. Mercifully, there were no cars to be
parked at that time. If someone had space outside his house, he used
this for his cows and buffaloes to get fresh milk both times of the
day. Some streets looked like cattle sheds.

The Mohallas or localities were
fortified with steel doors and night chowkidars keeping a watch.
These were unavoidable during the earlier Mughal and Sikh Raj when
there was little law and order. However, they also became useful
during the dying days of the British Raj when communal riots were
common and frequent specially in Punjab.

Lahore, no doubt, was an ancient
city. Legend has it that it was founded by Lav, the elder son
of Lord Rama, and was originally called Lavpur. There are references
to Lavpur in ancient Hindu books. In the Mahabharat, Punjab is
referred to as 'Panchal' and Draupadi (wife of Arjun) was called
'Panchali' the daughter of Punjab. Not many remains of the Hindu
period have survived in Lahore.

Babar, the Mughal king took Lahore in
1524. The Mughal period was the golden era of Lahore when it became
the 'royal residence'. Akbar held his court in Lahore from 1584 to
1598. Pakistani historian Mahammad Bakir in his book, ‘Lahore,
Past and Present’ and Mohammad Latif in his book, ‘Lahore- Its
history, Architectural Remains and Gates’ have quoted excerpts from
several past travellers about the opulence and grandeur of Lahore. In
1641, a Spanish Monk, Fray Sabastian Manrique recorded his
impressions in the following words,

“The city of
Lahore is beautifully situated, commanding the agreeable view, on one
side of the river with crystal waters which descend from the
mountains of Kashmir ... Lahore is ornamented with fine palaces and
gardens, also tanks and fountains.... As to the abundances of
provisions ... the riches of the principal street (known as the
Bazaar del Choco) if shown to advantage, will equal the richest
European mart.”

In l611, William Finch, an agent of
East India Company described it as one of the greatest cities of the
East. Another Englishman Thomas Coryat was more effusive in l614,

“The godly city of
Lahore in India is one of the largest cities of the whole universe
for it contayneth at least sixteen miles in compasse and exceeded
Constantinople itself in greatness.”

Both Finch and Coryat visted Lahore
during the the reign of Emperor Jehangir.

Jean Baptiste Tavernier refers to the
availability of wine and women in the city of Lahore in l641.

An Italian adventurer Niccolao
Manucci who set up medical practice in the city describes “ the
lofty houses in Lahore some as high as eight stories.”

As to the number of people living in
the city, the Kotwal( Police Chief) told him that he collected taxes
from 6000 houses of ill fame.

Apparently. the number of residents
ran into lakhs, he concluded.

In the beginning of the nineteenth
century specially during Maharaja Ranjit Singh ‘s reign Lahore had
deteriorated and it was in ruins. J. H. Johan, an English Army
officer wrote-

“ I visited the ruins of Lahore
which afforded a melancholy picture of the fallen splendour………Time
had taken a toll of magnificent buildings in the city imperceptibly”

With the fall of the Mughal Empire,
the importance of Lahore declined. Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikh
ruler (1780-1839), was busy fighting wars to subdue the Afghans to
have time to build new palaces and forts. He resided within the
Lahore fort during his lifetime.

Besides Punjab, he controlled the
entire undivided territories of the states of Jammu and Kashmir and
extended his rule into major part of Afghanistan. In the past,
Punjab had been attacked by Afghans, Iranians, Mughals and others
from time to time. For the first time in the recorded history of
India, he reversed the roles and not only stemmed the tide of
invasions from the north-west but also ruled over most of
Afghanistan.

After the Mughal rule, Lahore became
a city of magnificent ruins. It regained its reputation when it
became the British seat of power in Punjab towards the end of the
1830s. The two brothers Henry and John Lawrence ruled it with a firm
hand under the East India Company Administration. After 1857, the
British Government took the administration in their own hands. By
the turn of the twentieth century, Lahore enjoyed some kind of
renaissance. Railways played a major role to connect Lahore with
other parts of India. It became a thriving commercial city with many
schools, colleges and other educational institutions opening up and
attracting students, businessmen and traders from all parts of North
West India. It also became Punjab's principal literary and cultural
centre with several daily newspapers and magazines coming out
regularly. Book publishing was also a thriving industry of Lahore
especially in the Urdu language. Two English newspapers were
published from Lahore, Civil and Military Gazette, a newspaper run by
the British and the Tribune- an independent newspaper supporting the
national movement.

When I lived in Lahore, it was the
capital of the undivided Punjab Province. The Punjab Province
extended from Attock in the North-West Frontier Province to the
border of Delhi. It included West Punjab (now in Pakistan), East
Punjab (now a state of India) and also what are now the states of
Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The Punjab Province was called the
'sword arm' of the British Empire as it provided the most manpower
for the British Indian Army which protected British interests in
India and overseas. Other parts of India which went to Pakistan were
the Province of Sind, the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and
Balauchistan. The British described the residents of these areas as
martial races who protected India from the Indians and from the
greedy eyes of the rival European land-grabbers.

During much of the British Raj, peace
prevailed in the city and the countryside. Under the British, the
law was generally applied without discrimination. However, the
general perception was that people with wealth and affluence could
get away with murder. On the surface, Hindus and Muslims lived in
harmony in the same city though often in segregated Mohallas. Hindus
usually wanted to live in Hindu Mohallas and the Muslims with their
own co-religionists. If a brawl took place between a Hindu and a
Muslim, it had all the potential of taking a communal and violent
turn. Suddenly, the shops would close, people would run for cover
in ‘ safe ‘ areas and the street doors would close.

Rumour mills were rife and curfew
could be imposed at any time. People were afraid of their own
shadows. People of neighbouring localities professing different
religions did not trust each other and stories of 'war preparations'
in the other camp were told with highly exaggerated details. Punjabis
tend to exaggerate anything and when it came to 'communal
preparations' there were no upper limits. As a child, I often heard
these details with stunned fear whenever there was a communal flare
up in the city.

If a crime was committed, witnesses
were hard to come by. People either did not take sides or refused to
give evidence for fear of their caste, religion, community, and the
neighbourhood. Police had to take recourse to 'professional'
witnesses who were always ready to give any evidence at the request
of the police in return for some favours from the authorities. These
professional witnesses were always on the 'site' of the crime
whenever requested by the police, especially in communal brawls.
Punishing innocent people to prove a police case was not uncommon
during the British Raj.

The British rulers seemed to
encourage tensions between the two major communities. My memory is
of them often taking the side of the Muslims in Punjab because they
considered most Hindus as 'rebels' for demanding freedom from foreign
rule. Also in Punjab, the policemen were predominantly Muslim.
Again, Punjab was the only province of India where the majority
community, the Muslims, were given reservations in services as part
of the British official reservation policy. Elsewhere only the
minorities had reservations for government jobs. There were several
ways they openly showed their partiality towards Muslims- increasing
reservations for Muslims and later Sikhs in services or rejecting
Hindu candidates for police services on health and height grounds.

Special favours were bestowed on
people who toed the rulers' right to rule over India. The British
Government awarded titles and honours such as knighthoods as well as
titles like Rai Bahadurs, Rai Sahibs, and Khan Sahibs. Most of these
titled gentlemen worked as informers or spies providing intelligence
against the country's independence movement - often exaggerated
reports on what was planned by the movement to curry favour with the
rulers. The favour-seekers were always there on the Christmas days at
the bungalows of the British officers with large, decorated fruit
baskets and other gifts. Though the British officers were not known
for open bribery, some of them worked through touts. A British High
Court judge in those days was known to favour litigants in return for
sexual favours from beautiful Indian women.

Before Mahatma Gandhi appeared on the
scene in the early twenties of the twentieth century, there was lot
of respect or loyalty for the Sahibs (Englishmen) who brought about
peace and introduced laws which worked. People still remembered the
anarchy and lawlessness during the Sikh and the Mughal rule. There
were no codified laws under which justice could be dispensed with -
thus the ‘justice’ dispensed was usually in favour of the rich
and the powerful. Older people told us the stories of the times when
the British replaced the Sikh rulers around 1850s. The Sikhs
peasantry described them as 'Topiwale Sikhs' (Sikhs with hats). The
British enjoyed an image of fairness!

People felt honoured or elevated in
their status if the British guests attended a wedding or other such
parties at their invitation. I recall the wedding of my sister where
three of the bridegroom's senior officers (of a British company he
worked for) attended his wedding reception with their wives. We made
special arrangements for the white guests on an elevated platform
like a stage with special tables and chairs with cutlery and
crockery. Our Indian guests had their dinner sitting on the floor as
was the common practice at that time. The event became the talk of
our neighbourhood - even uninvited neighbours came to see how the
white men looked, ate and behaved.

However, with the introduction of the
English language, new schools and colleges and the emerging Indian
professional and middle classes, democratic ideas seeped in. People
started questioning the British rulers and foreign rule - especially
the isolation of the British in their separate clubs. Some clubs
carried rude warnings like, “Dogs and Indians not allowed”. It
was very humiliating to the growing number of educated Indians.

In India's history, many invaders
came from the North-West. Most of them stayed back, married and
became part of the Indian mainstream. During the Hindu era, they even
positioned themselves in the caste hierarchy. However the British
were different. The British ruling class were not allowed to marry
local Indian women. Those who did were sent back home. This
attitude of the British isolated them from the Indian masses who
became increasingly hostile.

The people of Lahore and Punjab got
actively involved in the independence movement primarily after the
Jallianwala Bagh tragedy in Amritsar in 1919 where hundreds of
unarmed men, women and children of the city were gunned down in a
closed Park , by the British General Dyer. Their subdued anger
resurfaced as Mahatma Gandhi gave it a voice and a platform.
However, when he advocated non-violence and non-cooperation, most
people did not understand his strategy. Educated Indians had not
known or heard of any freedom movement succeeding without armed
resistance and massive violence in world history. Many cited the
example of the French Revolution and of how the slogan of Liberty,
equality and fraternity united the people of France against their
monarch, leading to his overthrow after a violent struggle. Another
example cited was of the American War of Independence in the
eighteenth century. The American people threw the British out after
a savage and long war. And the latest in the series was the
Bolshevik Revolution in Russia which promised total economic
equality1.

When I was in College studying
Political Science, the young students from all communities were
influenced by the Communist ideology of Karl Marx and Lenin and most
of us had leftist leanings. We loved Gandhi for taking up the cause
of India's independence but not his method to achieve the goal. To be
honest, we were not sure he would ever succeed.

Gandhi set an example to the people –
he became the symbol of the poor – the poorest of the poor Indians.
He kept the minimum clothes needed on his person and decided to live
like the poorest of the land in a hut, drank goat's milk and ate very
little. He started his struggle with the army of one – himself.
People followed him in the millions, leaving their homes. The
British could not kill millions of Indians who followed him. They
could kill or maim only a few while other Indians always seemed ready
to take their place. The foundations of the Empire were beginning to
shake under the pressure of the Indian non-cooperation and non-
violence movement. We began to see a ray of hope in Gandhi's struggle
for independence through 'Satyagrah' – the Movement of Truth.

It was a new form of struggle. The
casualties were minimal but the impact was countrywide. Whether it
was Gandhi giving a call to boycott foreign goods, making bonfires of
imported cloth or illegally making salt on the Gujarat sea shore to
sell it without paying taxes, his methods had far-reaching effects on
the psyche of the nation. It hurt the British authority in India.
It hurt the British economic interests most and the hurt was felt in
the factories of Lancashire and resultant job losses. The British
industrial revolution had survived on the demand of the Indian people
for cloth made in the Lancashire mills and other goods of mass
consumption. Gandhi's call was to boycott foreign clothes and goods,
pay no taxes, leave government schools and colleges and extend no
cooperation to the British Administration. For the first time, the
British felt insecure in India.

His periodic crusades shook the
British Empire where the 'sun never set'. People lost their fear of
the police and the British authorities. Most of the police force
was Indian and there was an inherent sympathy for the freedom
fighters among them. There was no home in India where Gandhi Baba's
glory was not talked about. As children in those days, we formed the
army of Hanuman – the Monkey Army. India's late Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi was the chief of such an 'Army' as a child, in her
native town of Allahabad, while her parents were in jail.

The atmosphere was conducive for the
freedom struggle. Students left colleges, national Colleges were
opened, professors and teachers quit their jobs as did some
government servants. The British could no longer rely on the loyalty
of their Indian officials. But Gandhi had a tendency to call off his
movement when it showed even a little evidence of violence. These
suspensions of movements gave the British a breathing space. At
times, the masses felt betrayed but Gandhi stuck to his 'inner
voice'. However, these were relatively short interruptions as he
would restart another movement with an increased momentum.

By the time of partition, Lahore was
a leading commercial and educational centre. It was the home of
Punjab University, one of the leading universities of the country
which acted as a hub of economic and political activities. That is
why, the future of Lahore was intensely debated amongst the people of
the Punjab. Although in terms of population, the Muslims had a
slight edge over Hindus and Sikhs in the city, the Hindus and Sikhs
owned around 75% of the real estate in Lahore. The majority of the
educational institutions were run by Hindus and Sikhs and they were
in full control of business and commerce. A Boundary Commission was
set up by the British Government to determine the boundaries for the
two countries. An eminent Hindu lawyer Bakshi Sir Tek Chand, who
represented the Hindu and Sikh view point before the Boundary
Commission, confidently claimed that 'Lahore was in my pocket.' The
Hindu / Sikh claim seemed so overwhelming.

When the Boundary Commission headed
by Lord Radcliff favoured Pakistan in allocating Lahore to Pakistan,
Hindus and Sikhs got a rude shock. Many of its Hindu residents had
not moved hoping that it will fall within India and they could
continue to live their lives in Lahore. They had to run away after
the burning of the entire Shah Alami Gate area in Lahore and the
bloodshed that followed this announcement. Immediately after the
formation of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah announced in a broadcast
that Hindus and Sikhs had nothing to fear and that they will be
treated as equal citizens, but this declaration did not stem the
tide. Most Hindus and Sikhs except those who opted to convert to
Islam left their homes and were not allowed to return. Their houses
and properties were looted or occupied forcibly. The fact that they
had a lot more property and wealth fuelled the zeal of Islamic
zealots to loot and plunder.

During the partition turmoil, I was
firmly planning to continue to live in Lahore as long as it was
possible. I had just passed my Masters in Political Science topping
the list of successful candidates with a First Class – a rare
distinction in our family, where no one had so far got past the B.A.
Degree. I had a full-time job in a Hindi daily newspaper called
‘Vishwa Bandhu’. It was a subsidiary of more popular and
profitable Urdu newspaper called ‘Vir Bharat’ and run by a
Sanatan Dharam Pratinidhi Sabha headed by a respected Hindu saint,
Goswami Ganesh Dutt.

Goswami Ganesh Dutt propounded no new
sect but focused on traditional ancient Hindu beliefs including idol
worship and rituals as opposed to the more modern and reformist Arya
Samaj Movement pioneered by Swami Dayanand Saraswati, a Gujarat-born
scholar. The Arya Samaj Movement had an electrifying effect amongst
the Hindus of Punjab and revived interest in ancient Vedic glory. It
focussed on belief in one God (more suited the psyche of the Punjabis
who had to co-exist with Islam) and did not support idol worship and
rituals. Arya Samaj believed also in “Shudhi” - a movement to
re-convert Hindus and Christians who had changed their faith due to
allurements of money or marriages. Hindus also began to get over
their reluctance to take back their brethren who had converted to
other faiths.

The reformist Arya Samaj with its
belief in reconversion annoyed Muslim clergy but it did create among
the Hindus a new awareness and pride in their Vedic traditions. Arya
Samaj also adopted aggressive slogans like “Make the whole world
Aryans (Hindus)”. In Sanskrit, Arya literally means a superior or
fine human. In ancient India, people of the sub-continent were all
called Aryans and the land was described as ‘Aryavrta’ – the
land of the Aryans. Wives addressed heir husbands not by their first
names but respectfully called them – Arya (a superior human).
Hindu was the name given to the people of the country by the invaders
from the West. All those who lived beyond the Sindhu, the Indus
river, were termed as Hindus and this subsequently came to be
associated with the Hindu religion – the principal religious faith
of the people of the sub-continent.

So far, Islam and Christianity have
had an easy march in the Indian sub-continent. The Sanatan Dharam
and Arya Samaj, Brahmo-Samaj and Ramkrishan Mission changed this
trend. Hindus became more assertive and proud of their faith and
convictions. The Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) an organization
believing in Hindu solidarity and nationalism had sprung up in all
cities of Punjab attracting young Hindu men. They could be seen
exercising in parks every morning after dawn. RSS volunteers had won
the hearts of Hindus. They were the only people who resisted the
aggressive Islamic crowds. If the Muslims stabbed Hindus, RSS
volunteers answered it with crude bombs in Lahore. Many Muslims
decided that their interests would be better served by demanding a
separate Islamic country totally dominated by Muslims. The Hindu
renaissance was an important reason for Muslim craving for a new
country of their own to protect their identity.

I was feeling quite 'safe' in Lahore
as I was hired by a Hindu Congress legislator of the Punjab, Lala
Bhagwan Das. He was named the representative of the East Punjab
Government in Lahore for the interim period till the two Punjab
States could settle down. He took me on as his Private Secretary (my
newspaper having suspended publication due to riots) which was more
of a Political Secretary’s role. He was a millionaire businessman
of Lahore dealing in imported crockery with a massive showroom in
Anarkali, as large as today's supermarkets. Lalaji, as we
respectfully called him, was provided security by the government in
Lahore – at least two constables at a time. He was not highly
educated and could not easily converse in English and deputed me as
his representative to talk things over with government officials and,
at times, politicians on his behalf.

It was my duty to co-ordinate his
activities with the new government in West Punjab. I got an
excellent opportunity to meet, interact and work with the Ministers,
MLAs and other powerful people including the then Chief Minister of
West Punjab, Choudhary Khizar Hayat Khan Tiwana as well as the
designated new Chief Minister of East Punjab Dr. Gopi Chand Bhargava.

This gave me a unique confidence and
I moved freely in a car escorted by the two policemen with guns all
the time – one Hindu and the other Muslim. Now, whenever a call for
help came from aggrieved Hindus and Sikhs, our car was on the spot
trying to help the victims. Hindus needing police help approached us
and we tried to contact the Army and Police. I had already abandoned
my home deep in the walled city, Shah Alami Gate, and had moved to
Lalaji's office to attend to such calls. Not that we could do much –
the looters had already done their jobs and fled and if anyone needed
medical help we assisted. We also tried to get an Army escort if
some party needed to reach the refugee camp or a safe place. I
occasionally visited my house in the walled city to make sure
everything was safe and our house had not been 'looted' so far.

Fortunately, I had moved my parents
and my brothers' families plus my sister's family to Haridwar, with
an introduction from Goswami Ganesh Dutt (who owned the Hindi
newspaper I had worked for earlier). Haridwar was the most sought
after refuge of the fleeing Hindus of Punjab. It was seen as a place
of safety as well as a place for meditation and prayers. We had
obtained three rooms for my family members in a Dharamshala there.

Although safe in Haridwar, I knew
they were anxious about their future in the new dispensation. Where
will they get the next meal? What will their children do for a
living if they were not allowed to go back to what was once their
home in Lahore? Soon, after my parents moved to Haridwar, the Shah
Alami area where we lived was burnt to ashes by rioting mobs of
Muslims. However our new house, not far from the main bazaar,
escaped the fire, isolated as it was in a corner lane. It was
miraculously saved.

As soon as the fires subsided in Shah
Alami Gate area, I revisited the locality escorted by police but was
not able to reach our house due to the simmering fire and was not
sure whether it was still intact. I could see, from a distance, some
dead bodies burning and the smell of their flesh created terror in
me. The death toll in Shah Alami fire was not terribly high as many
residents had already moved apprehending trouble. The victims were
those who were too old to move, or too attached to their property or
had nowhere else to go. Those who surrendered to security forces were
escorted to the Refugee Camps near the City.

Those were pathetic times. I saw many
people slaughtered and stabbed, their bloodied bodies scattered here
and there. Life had become so cheap that death had no real meaning.
Among those stabbed dead, I recognized some known faces amongst them
. No one could help them – no one was there to help them. One of
them was a very trusted friend of my elder brother and a neighbour. I
had spent many, many hours in his company as a child and he gave me a
lot of love and affection. He used to call me a 'Professor' even
when I was a boy of 15 as I used to tell him a lot of things from my
books which he had not heard, which pleased him. He predicted that
one day I would be a Professor which proved true. When I saw him
dead, I cried. I touched his feet with tears in my eyes and then left
as if he had never existed!

After this massive killing of
non-Muslims, some miscreants in Lahore danced with joy and the
'murderers' were treated as heroes – and were rewarded by some
Muslim elders with money. I could not imagine man could be so brutal
and heartless.

Although I was determined to stay and
give company to my boss as long as he wanted, destiny had more
sensible plans in store for me. Lalaji had sent his immediate family
to a safer havens. However, he had retained one of his khadi wearing
young nephews to keep him company. The nephew, it seemed, had booked
his plane ticket to Delhi to attend the Independence Day celebrations
in the Indian capital on August 14, 1947, with good intentions of
coming back to Lahore after the celebrations on August fifteen –
India's first Independence Day. When Lalaji came to know of this, he
had a fit and cried – everybody wants to leave me to die in this
city. He was inconsolable till the nephew relented and agreed not to
go.

On my return to the office, the
nephew offered me his air ticket leaving Lahore on August l4th
afternoon. He pleaded with me to go as otherwise the ticket would be
wasted as it could not be returned. I accepted his offer and paid
him the price of the ticket which I believe was not more than one
hundred rupees those days. Anyhow, I had never flown in an aeroplane
before and I wanted to experience this excitement.

Soon, I took the car back with the
police escort and headed in Kucha Patnian in an area called Jaure
Mori within the Shah Alami Gate walls. Strange and forgotten names
still sound not so strange to me. Our new house had replaced an old
Haveli (big house)which was in ruins. It had modern furnishings and
cemented floorings and decorations. This new and spacious house was
the talk of our neighbourhood with people coming to look and admire.
My parents were very proud of their residence as it was the only new
house among the hundred other dilapidated old buildings around.
Naturally, they cried when they left what they fondly used to call
them 'Haveli' compared to the normal houses where other mortals of
the locality lived!

One of my elder brothers, whose
business was in forward transactions of gold and silver had 'stocked'
some 50 kilograms of silver in the house expecting prices to rise. I
looked at this 'booty' contemptuously and left it for the Muslim
raiders. I collected half a dozen useful clothes to wear, put them
in a little suitcase and said goodbye to my parents’ new ‘Haveli’.

On hearing my voice and the farewell
visits I made to some neighbours, a few people who had been left
behind in the street came out to ask what was happening. They were
terribly disappointed when they heard that I too was 'flying' to
Delhi leaving them to their fate. “Take us along”, one of them
yelled. But, how could I? I felt sad and helpless. “I will send
an Army truck to take those who wish to go to the Refugee Camp. Keep
ready with only two bags each.“ I promised them that and I did
make those arrangements before leaving. If anyone left, I am not so
sure. One of them was a very fat and obese businessman with an
equally obese wife. Tears came to his eyes as he asked me, “What
will happen to us?”. I had no answer. I could not take him and his
family along. I offered to leave him at the railway station, if he
wanted. But, he was worried about his property!

Later in life on the other side of
the divide, I never saw or heard of the other people in the Mohalla
whom I left behind. Perhaps they fell victims to the hatred and rage
of the raiders. Most of them were old who could not easily move. I
can still recall the face of the old and fat neighbour with a fatter
wife – and his sad face on my departure.

The driver took me to the airport and
I boarded a noisy Dakota, the old war horse of the Americans, sold as
junk by the departing Americans after World Wear II.

The Lahore airport itself was a new
experience. It was an open area with a lonely building standing in
isolation. There were no security checks for the baggage or of the
person. I showed the ticket at the reception. Sadly, there were no
beautiful hostesses either at that time. We had just a hefty and
rugged uniformed young man on the flight. No soft drinks or candy.
A few passengers were already seated in the plane. I was the last one
to board and was given some cotton to put into my ears. The cotton
was essential as the noise made by the roaring Dakota plane those
days was unbearable and could affect the eardrums.

I had seen planes flying in the sky
and heard their roar. When the the noise was so far away, we, as
children, would still close our ears. But, now when the plane rose
from the ground with me sitting inside it, the roar was unbearable
causing pain in my ears. The air journey that I longed to enjoy
became hell. It was not what I had imagined. I prayed for safe
landing all through the three hour long flight to the capital of
India. The planes in the late forties seldom flew at a speed more
than 100 miles an hour. I had pain in my ears due to change in air
pressure after take off which continued for three days or more after
landing. Never again by air, I vowed!

But my destiny had decided otherwise
and I was to become one of the most travelled Indians of my
generation after my entry in international tourism, as you will read
in subsequent chapters.

1It
is a different thing that it did not work and a million people
perished during the revolution!